Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea comes from director Tony Olmos (Continuance) and writer Brian Patrick Butler (Friend of the World). Bizarrely, Butler himself plays the part of the antagonist old woman featured here, though it helps being a comedy that his strange appearance can be brushed off. She had by far the best lines and best deliveries of the film, so I would assume that's why Butler played the part, so he could bring his lines to life in the way he envisioned here.
An epidemic has swept America in which drug users have become addicted to a dangerous new type of bath salt. The side effects cause the addicts to wander around in a stupor, attacking anyone who gets within reach, as well giving the addicts a taste for human flesh. Liz Topham-Myrtle (Butler) is the landlady of a remote housing block, knowing her tenants have nowhere else to go, she rules over them with an iron-fist. She takes advantage of them, pitting them against each other, and changing their tenancy agreements on a whim. With the police wrapped around her little finger, and with martial law close to being called due to the nationwide bath salt epidemic, Liz is making her own little empire. The tenants, angry at their treatment by her, have began to rebel, leading to a series of events that have drastic consequences.
The general idea behind this film I liked. I appreciated the zombie sub-plot, and while not literal zombies, these addicts filled the role well. It was always suggested that out on the streets is carnage, with the addicted out in force, but this never came across that strongly on screen. With a muted zombie outbreak, there was also a muted response to it, which did make the threat of them seem over-exaggerated. Butler was scene stealing in his lead role. It is really obvious it isn't an actual old lady, but this gives the character a really surreal appearance that just added to her commanding role. The quick fire matter of fact way the character speaks was often mesmerising, even if she was a detestable character. That became my core issue with much of the movie, how unlikeable virtually the entire cast are. Even characters on the more good side of things still appeared to be horrid people. Rosie (Kimberley Weinberger) was set-up to be the protagonist, but was barely better than the rest of the horrid cast. When there are no characters to like, it becomes hard to care about any of them or their fates. This is reflected within the film itself, as the cast of characters are all back stabbing and out for themselves, even with a high body count, these characters don't appear to particularly care about all the death going on around them.
Special effects delighted at times, there are more than a couple of severed limbs, a load of corpses, and one quite entertaining scene involving a chainsaw! The 'zombies' for want of a better term, do get some classic moments such as tearing open people's stomachs, and there is a bit of decent looking gunfire effects as well.
With the movie taking place near entirely at the dusty desert compound, the look fitted the downtrodden story well. It doesn't take much to see this is partly a critique against the housing situation in America, while also speaking out about corruption and racism.
The set-up for Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea was good, I liked the addition of a dangerous epidemic sweeping the country. I do wish there had been more characters to root for, this had an almost Shakespearean quality of betrayal and arrogance behind the story, but with this cast of nasty people, it was hard to care about any of it too deeply.
SCORE:
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